SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The recently released Pew Internet & American Life Project study may not be everything we ever wanted to know about male and female internet surfing habits, but it’s a step in the right direction.According to the study, which involved 6,403 users, men have a lot more online leisure time to burn than do their female counterparts, and they make the most of it by logging on more often and at faster speeds. Once they’re logged on, men seek out stocks, sports, news – and pornography. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be found on health or religious guidance sites.

Although 70-percent of men confessed to using their online time purely to burn time, women are catching up. At 63-percent currently, younger women are increasingly likely to spend idle time online. Currently more men than women report listening to music or watching webcams or other digital content online, whereas women are more likely to while away the hours exchanging complex email with friends and family.

“Once you get past the commonalities,” Deborah Fallows, a research fellow at Pew and author of the report points out, “men tend to be attracted to online activities that are far more action-oriented, while women tend to value things involving relationships or human connections.”

Interestingly enough, the number of men and women online today is roughly equal, with both sexes agreeing that the Web is an efficient communication tool filled with information. While only 20-precent of the overall U.S. population had logged on in 1995, 68-percent of men and 66-percent of women now visit the cyber universe on a regular basis.

Content aside, the activities that men and women are likely to engage in while online are interestingly different. Men have traditionally spent more time making internet purchases, trading stock, bidding in auctions, browsing porn, and hanging out in chat rooms. Women, on the other hand, are more inclined to seek health and medical information, as well as look for religious information. Fallows notes that these tendencies are reflected in offline behavior, as well. Given the stigma against women viewing porn, it is possible that the five-percent self-reporting statistic may not reflect the true number of women who visit adult sites.

Unsurprisingly, more men surveyed felt comfortable using and repairing their computers and more reported a familiarity with tech jargon. The question for researchers was ultimately whether these differences were due to gender or generation issues. Review of the questionnaire, which covered 90 online activity areas, strongly suggests that some of what appear to be gender differences are actually more likely related to age. Younger women and girls proved to be far more technically savvy than their older counterparts, although more men aged 65 and above use the internet than do women of the same age.